Good to hear you got it going, Brad. There are a
number of kits out there similar in scope and price to
the SR-40. Without encouraging the creation of a
kit-building monster, I hope you can give some of the
other ones a try. Most, like the Rock-Mites for
example, come complete with an active and friendly
support group like this one to ensure your success.
Congratulations, Brad.
Eric
KE6US
www.ke6us.com
--- redbudpub <briefer@...> wrote:
Been a ham since 1966 and I'm just now getting into
building. I've
got a condition called essential tremors (pretty
common actually -
kinda Parkinson's little brother I guess). I
thought there was no
way I could put a kit together, and there was
certainly no way I
could work with SMT parts. Well, taint so. I built
an SR40! I had
enough solder bridges to build that bridge to
nowhere in Alaska.
I've redone each solder joint several times. I
installed L1 in the
wrong hole (doh!).
After a couple weeks of frustration (and reading
everyone's posts
saying how they built their SR40 in an afternoon,
etc.), I reached
behind the computer to pull the SR40 out for the
last time and give
up on it. When I touched it, I put some lateral
force on it
(slightly bent the circuit board) and, lo and
behold, I started
hearing CW! I pulled that puppy out of the USB slot
and gave
it "real close look over #3248" but didn't see
anything suspicious.
I felt like the bending of the circuit board was a
pretty big hint
of where the problem lay, so I hooked a little 5V
supply and very
judiciously bent and generally fondled the little
SR40 until it
started playing again. I took note of the area of
the circuit board
where the flexion seemed to make a difference.
Somewhere about 1/4"
from the USB plug is where my problem lay.
Then I did "real close look over #3249" and noticed
one IC pin that
looked like it might not actually have gotten tacked
down. It was
solder-shiny, but if that pin wasn't really and
truly soldered down,
then flexing the board a little might make it touch
it's pad and...
So, I pulled out my solder and gave just a little
touch to that
pad. Plugged it all back into the computer, hooked
it all back up,
and, by golly, it works!
Just want to thank the guys who put this kit
together. I've learned
a whole lot pushing myself past my too narrow
"limits," and I've
convinced myself that, given enough solder wick and
bandaids, I can
actually build a kit and can actually work with SMT
parts. I'm way
slower than most, since I've got to settle the iron
tip down and
take deep breaths between pins, and I've got to
rebuild everything
about 15 times. But my troubleshooting skills have
gotten a bit
better, and, since I'm not being paid by the job or
by the hour, who
cares how long it takes me? Thanks for providing
this excellent
kit. I know I'm way behind the technology curve (I
learned my
theory when it was all tubes); but this kit has made
me feel like
I'm on some kind of cutting edge.
Now I'll go back to lurking and reading the posts
and trying to
figure out what everyone else is talking about.
Wonder if I could
build one of those new IQPro vfos for my Softrock
40?
Brad Smith
WA5PSA
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